Another red hot day welcomed the Guernsey players to the Royal Selangor Club and the second game of the ICC WCL5 versus Nigeria. The teams last met here in Malaysia in 2012 during WCL6 however the game was abandoned after a major thunderstorm! No chance of that today and in fact temperatures peaked at 42C in the afternoon.
So to the game and Jamie once again won the toss and this time decided to bat first impart given the batting frailties exposed when chasing yesterday and also noting that the ball did very little different in either innings. Lucas Barker (45 from 87) and Zac Damarell (21 from 54) once again got us off to a start and had put on 63 before Zac fell first. James Gale came in at three and ensured other collapse did not start as he and Lucas moved to 87. James then fell but still Guernsey moved on relatively comfortably albeit losing wickets when batsmen had seemed set.
All of the first 7 in fact registered double figures and a more testing target perhaps was not achieved with no one going on. Ben Ferbrache weighed in with a near run a ball 27 that was very useful at the time. So 192/9 in the end and having bowled and fielded so well yesterday that seemed defendable.

Zac Damarell ICC

Nigeria started well and whilst offering a couple of chances had moved well to 46 before Hoops struck courtesy of a barker catch. Hoops and Ben then teamed up to effect a run out and with Jamie (10-0-26-3) coming into the attack and Max Ellis (10-0-39-2) involved Guernsey kept chipping away to stay in the hunt. Nigeria however never needed more than just under 4 an over and were content to deal in singles.

Luke Le Tissier on his debut ML

Luke Le Tissier had come on in this period for his debut and bowled well in such a pressure situation and had he held a sharp caught and bowled chance Nigeria would have been under further pressure. In the end the equation came down to single figures but tight overs from Jamie and Hoops both taking a wicket also saw the final over arrive with Nigeria needing 5 to win.

Hoops in action ICC

Matt Stokes bowled this and with a decent length ball first up was unfortunate to see the ball fly out of the park as the Nigeria batsman threw the kitchen sink at it. Shoulders slumped all round the field and a great effort was ultimately in vain. However there was much to be positive about given the previous day’s events and these will be highlighted as the group looks to pick itself up and go again.

CricketEurope by Russell Degnan

Guernsey returned to the same ground, the Royal Selangor Club that saw their first day collapse; chose to bat first on same pitch; and again failed to post enough runs to turn around their fortunes against a more experienced Nigerian side, also searching for their first win.
Both the pitch and outfield at the Royal Selangor Club ground showed signs of the football that gets played on it, and whose lines criss-cross the surface. The surface of both is slow, slightly uneven, the wicket offering neither bounce nor pace, with even the tall Nigerian opening bowlers regularly seeing balls pass the wicket below knee height. Guernsey’s openers showed good patience, adding 63 off the first 20 overs before Damarell was bowled by the spin of Ofem. His partner, Lucas Barker, continued on to 45, working the ball around before also succumbing to a rank full-toss by Ofem that he skied to mid wicket. James Gale made a fluent 23 full of late-cuts, but he fell 7 overs later. Guernsey was well placed to make a challenging score, at 3/115 off 32 overs, but the difficulty of coming in on a pitch offering no pace, and a reluctance to hit over the top, meant that they crawled through the latter overs to end on 192. Saheed Akolade was the pick of the Nigerian bowlers, taking 3-29 off a long and rapid shuffling run, and generating good pace to cartwheel the stumps of the lower order.

After keeping the Cayman Islands to 140 on the same pitch yesterday, the Guernsey players felt the score was sufficient. They were dealt an early blow however, when experienced opener Savident injured his back after three overs and left the field. With Stokes a little wayward and the bowling generally a little short, Nigeria were rewarded with boundaries, even as they struggled to turn over the strike. Wickets fell irregularly for the first 20 overs, but Nigeria kept pace with the target. The crucial partnership came when Olatunji joined Adegbola for the fifth wicket. While the latter struggled to score, finishing with only 20 off 72 balls with no boundaries, Olatunji hit over the top, making 40 at nearly a run a ball. Guernsey’s most incisive bowler on the day, Nussbaumer, repeatedly brought himself back on to rally his side, removing Onatunji in the 34th over and Onwuzulike in the 46th, but his figures of 3-26 were not decisive. While the required run-rate never differed, Nigeria still threatened to implode. Immediately after Bejide hit the first of his two sixes, Adegbola tried the same tactic and was caught. With singles sufficient, there was no need for the ugly swipes that underlay most of the Nigerian wickets to fall; yet, in the end, their more aggressive approach worked where Guernsey failed to score heavily when they needed to earlier in the day. Down to the ninth wicket, Nigeria still needed five runs off the final over. Faced with a choice between the more expensive medium-pace of Stokes or the off spin off Le Tissier playing his first game for Guernsey, Nussbaumer chose Stokes. Bejide gambled again, and the first ball disappeared over mid-wicket for his second six, clinching the victory.
Guernsey, win-less and yet to face either Malaysia or Jersey, will need to use the rest day to recover if they are to avoid relegation back to division six. Nigeria will face their fellow single victor, the Cayman Islands, in a match that will determine whether they’ll be fighting for promotion or to avoid relegation on the final two match-days.